Not a Blogpost

Yeah, I'm slacking. But I figured I'd go race last weekend and have some great report about that. Sadly, no. Might I suggest that if you want to go to your first race of the season with only 3 weeks of base training in your legs, you might want to start with something easier than jumping in with P1/2 men (unless you are a p1/2 man, of course). Dude, they were attacking off the line. What the hell? I didn't make it too far, but I'm totally OK with that. You can't be bummed with your fitness when you haven't been doing your homework.

Anyway, I have some pictures and stuff to post, but I'm more interested in getting out on my bike ride this afternoon than attending to my blog. I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that I posted my 2011 Season Goals on the sidebar. Please ridicule me extensively should I fail to achieve these goals, especially if the failure is due to my own misconduct (i.e. eating an entire bowl of cookie dough, not training, not stretching, not foam rolling, etc.). However, if I flat in the time trial at the Green Mountain Stage Race and have to walk the whole thing, please don't ridicule me. It will probably make me cry, and then we'll both feel awkward.

Wednesday, Blogday - and FOOD!

I've been waiting to update the ol' blog. Waiting for what, I dunno. Inspiration? Some rad photos? Perhaps to grow up enough to no longer say "rad" every other sentence? (Pshaw, right, like that's going to happen.)

Anyway, devoid of inspiration and the ability to take rad photos, uninteresting and random updates will have to do.


I'm finally getting in some solid training. It feels so good to have tired legs. First race is in a week and a half! I was very sweetly assured by a local former Jittery Joe's pro and Seaside Cycle fit guru that I won't get dropped in the men's 1/2/3 race and if I stick with he and his teammate I'll be safe. I'm not sure where he gets that level of confidence in my fitness, but I'd hate to disappoint.


I'm working too much, but there's no help for that. This is the first day I've had off since last Wednesday, and the next day I have off is NEXT wednesday. But some of them are short days and there is always time for a good ride.

I keep meaning to write a blog post about food. A cyclist talking about food? Erm, not original. We all love to eat, and many of us love to cook. I just made some yummy baked cinnamon oatmeal cakes to have with my coffee. I keep thinking about taking pictures of the food I cook because I tend to make up recipes as I go along and 9 times out of 10 they turn out fantastic. Really, they do. Ask Cody. And if he tells you otherwise let me know and I'll straighten him out.


The problem is, I'm beginning to realize, that I am an abysmal photographer. I cook some great meal and take a picture of it and it's, uh, kind of gross looking. Now, before anyone starts giving me tips on how to take artfully constructed culinary photos, just stop. I appreciate the thought, but I don't think we all have to be good at everything, and if I'm a lousy photographer then whatever. I'll leave the picture taking up to someone else. Or I'll just post pictures of really unappetizing looking food and insist time and time again that it was actually really good. And you'll believe me, right? Because why would I lie?

Here is a superb example. Spaghetti and meat-less balls, with shredded parmesan cheese. They were way yummy, and the meatballs I made for Cody reportedly turned out great too, despite the fact that I didn't taste them at any point during the cooking process. But they just look . . . well, use your imagination. I think the lighting must just really suck in my house, because it looks equally bad whether I use the flash or not. Whatever, moving on.


On the subject of food and meat-less balls, I'm a mostly-vegetarian. I've been eating some fish (I live in a fishing town, it's too good to say no) and think that dining with friends is too valuable to turn down food that was cooked for me even if it contains the odd furry friend. But honestly I think I've only had non-fish meat twice in the last 8 months. But I won't eat lobster because boiling any animal alive is just abhorrent.


Moving on.


I had thoughts to share on the subject of cycling and living the dream, but they'll have to wait for next time, because the longer I wait to ride the more likely I'm going to get poured on. I've heard reports of a "hill" worthy of "repeating" over in Georgetown, so I'm on reconnaissance today. Fingers crossed for a steep grade!

The Amazing Changing Calendar

2011 racing calendar has changed, again. So many races, so little time. I'd really like to find a public forum to openly criticize the Tour of Connecticut organizers for not having a single women's field. WTF?

Cape Cod

Oh bikes. I love bikes. Love love love.

Last weekend we went down to Cape Cod to find some snow-free trails. I'd never been, so it was a pretty cool little road trip. The first day we rode something called Trail of Tears, because the trial descriptor said it was the more technical trail in the area. It ended up being pretty fast and flowy, really fun, and not particularly technical. And there was hardly anyone out there, which seemed a little surprising on a Saturday. Weee! Singletrack and sunshine.

We spent the night in Hyannis at an Econolodge. There's a weird feel to these tourist-driven-economy places in the off season, but it was nice that it wasn't totally jam packed. I mean, I guess Gloucester is pretty tourism-heavy, but there's also a ton of commercial fishing, so it has a little more life in the winter.

Anyway, on Sunday we rode Otis, which is what they call the trails that border Otis Air Force Base. That solved the riddle of why there wasn't anyone on Trail of Tears the day before. The trails on Otis were soooooo much fun! More technical than ToT, by far, but super fast, too. Fun little rock drops off to the side of the trail, and steep, long-ish (by east coast standards) climbs and descents. And it was sunny and gorgeous and I was way overdressed in my long sleeved jersey and knickers. I didn't even BRING a short sleeved jersey with me, that's how long we've been stuck here in the cold. It didn't even occur to me. But I'm happy overheating a bit if it means the sun is shining. Rad. So rad.

This weekend we might to up to York, ME to visit some friends. I think I'll ride up there. It sounds pretty cool to say I rode in 3 states on one ride (MA, NH, ME), even if it's only 62 miles. But I have no endurance at this point so 62 miles will be a good grunt.

Wednesday is Saturday

Wednesday is the only day I have allll to myself. I sleep in, drink coffee, lay about. Then a ride, thinking about cleaning the house, cooking, reading about the bike racing goings-on back in California. It's my day to get caught up on sleep and me-time from rough Monday and Tuesday work schedule (finish work at 9 PM on Monday, have to be back there at 4:45 AM on Tuesday).

We ended up with some yellow tulipsdaffodils that smell amazing and I have sitting right next to the computer for optimal scent inundation.

It's kind of yucky out - windy and rainy - and I'll probably log a bit of trainer time today. I've become so wimpy about the cold this year, and I can't figure out why. Part of me thinks that I was all tough in past years because I already had good conditioning and I was motivated to maintain it. This year I'm still trying to log some base and there isn't really much to maintain. I'm putting it all down to experience and hoping that I'll know how to plan next year a little better. I've been thinking about mountain bike racing a lot lately. Maybe it's because the road riding around here is only so-so, and the mountain biking is wicked fun. Maybe I've just been looking at old mountain bike photos. Anyway, the plan is to go ride down in Cape Cod this weekend. I'm pretty stoked - never been down there, so it's all new to me!

Old photo, lousy resolution, but oh, the blue sky and singletrack. . .